Can I tell PMax which channel should receive budget?

Not directly through normal campaign settings. The channel performance report shows where budget and performance happen, and you can use that to adjust feed, assets, structure, goals, or values.

Can I prioritize a specific asset?

Not as a manual lever such as use this image more. But you can monitor asset reporting, remove weak assets, add stronger variants, and change the inputs Google uses to assemble ads.

Are audience signals targeting?

No. They are signals that help Google AI find relevant audiences. The campaign is not limited to them.

BlogMeasurement and Analytics4 min read

Performance Max technically: feed, asset performance, channel report, audience signals, and negative keywords

Performance Max is not just turn it on and trust Google. Direct control is limited, but there are many technical inputs: conversion quality, value, product feed, assets, reports, and signals.

Short Answer

Performance Max is not just turn it on and trust Google. Direct control is limited, but there are many technical inputs: conversion quality, value, product feed, asset groups, asset performance, channel performance report, search term insights, audience signals, custom segments, brand exclusions, and negative keywords. You cannot tell Google exactly which image or channel to prioritize, but reports can show where the problem is, and you can provide better inputs.

Start With Conversions And Value

PMax optimizes toward the goal. If the primary conversion is wrong, PMax will scale the wrong signal very efficiently. For an e-shop, purchase, transaction_id, value, currency, and feed must be correct. For lead generation, it must be clear whether the campaign optimizes for a form, qualified lead, or deal.

Before tuning assets, check conversion actions, primary/secondary status, values, and offline imports. PMax with wrong conversion value is like a warehouse worker who cannot tell a cheap item from an expensive one.

Feed As The Main Ecommerce Input

In retail, the feed is often more important than ad copy. Check title, description, product_type, google_product_category, brand, GTIN/MPN, image_link, availability, price, sale_price, and custom labels. A feed is not a static file. It is a performance asset.

Use custom labels for margin, season, bestseller status, price tier, or stock level. This lets you structure campaigns or asset groups by business logic, not just by the e-shop category.

Asset Groups And Individual Asset Performance

An asset group is not just a folder with images. It is a combination of creative, signals, URLs, and sometimes listing groups. Track asset group performance, but also the performance of individual assets: headlines, long headlines, descriptions, images, videos, and combinations. The Google Ads asset report lets you compare assets and decide what to remove, rotate, or add.

You cannot hard-code an instruction to Google such as use this image more. But you can see that some assets perform poorly, that video is missing, that headlines are generic, or that the best combination repeats a certain message. Practical PMax creative optimization means supplying better assets, not fighting the algorithm.

Channel Performance Report: Diagnostics, Not A Lever

The channel performance report shows how PMax delivers performance across Google channels and inventory. That does not mean you can simply move 20% of the budget from YouTube to Shopping. It means you can understand where the campaign spends budget and what that says about your inputs.

Example: you are an e-shop and see that a large share of spend goes to YouTube. It may mean you have very strong video and PMax is finding a conversion path there. But it may also mean that the feed, product titles, or listing groups are not strong enough and the campaign is looking for performance elsewhere. The channel report is not a lever; it is diagnostics. Good diagnostics, however, fundamentally changes what you adjust: feed, assets, bidding, campaign split, or conversion goal.

Search Term Insights And Negative Keywords

Search term insights help you understand which themes PMax is matching to. It is not a full Search query report like in Search campaigns, but it is an important audit signal. If you see irrelevant themes, address brand exclusions, campaign-level negative keywords, account-level negative keywords, feed names, and landing pages.

Today, you need to distinguish between campaign-level negative keywords in PMax, account-level negative keywords, and brand exclusions. Each control has a different purpose. Negative keywords will not fix a bad feed or bad conversion, but they help limit obviously wrong directions.

Audience Signals And Custom Segments

Audience signals are not hard targeting. They are suggestions for Google AI. They are still useful, especially for new campaigns, B2B lead generation, and products with a specific audience. In addition to first-party lists, website visitors, and in-market segments, use custom segments.

For custom segments, add the highest-intent search terms, URLs of your own key landing pages, and in some cases competitor URLs or comparable solutions. Google does not treat this as targeting only people from a competitor's website, but as a signal about what type of interest and context to look for.

When To Split PMax

Splitting makes sense by business logic: margin, stock level, product category, brand/non-brand, new products vs bestsellers, lead type, or value. Splitting just because you want to feel more in control does not make sense. Every split reduces the data volume in a campaign, so it needs a reason.

For e-shops, it often makes sense to separate products with different margins or target ROAS. For lead generation, it may make sense to separate service types if they have different value and different lead quality.

FAQ